Starting this Sunday (Aug 12), the DNP will encourage visitors to reduce consumption of single-use plastics at all 154 national parks in Thailand. Under the ban, all styrofoam containers will also be banned from being brought into national parks. (See story here.)
This Sunday marks the 86th birthday of the Queen Mother Sirikit Kitiyakara, mother to His Majesty The King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun. (See stories here and here.)
The auspicious day is also celebrated as Mother’s Day throughout the Kingdom.
Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, said, “Thailand is blessed with a landscape abundant in natural beauty, and the importance of protecting this environment cannot be understated. As such, the TAT calls on all tourists local and international to say no to plastic bags and other single-use items. Opt instead for bags, utensils and drink bottles that can be used again and again.”
Nature is one of the key areas in the TAT’s ‘Amazing Thailand: Open to the New Shades’ communication concept, through which it is encouraging tourists to see the kingdom from new and existing perspectives.
The DNP’s initiative covers plastic and foam bags, food containers, capped water bottles and utensils – essentially any item that is typically used one time and then thrown away.
The convenience of plastic bags and other such items is obvious, but these are harmful to the environment and much of what is discarded ends up in Thailand’s seas where it pollutes the water and kills marine life that either mistakes it for food or becomes tangled in it. Some plastics also pose danger to human health as they partially disintegrate.
The DNP in its fight against single-use plastics, with the support of organisations like the TAT, represents a move in the right direction to protect Thailand’s natural and scenic beauty now and in the future.
A series of banners, in Thai in the initial stage, has been produced to help spread awareness of the new initiative at the country’s national parks. These encourage people to think of the harm the plastic they throw away will do to the environment, and to instead act in an environment-friendly way.
The DNP estimates that its initiative will help reduce about three million items of plastic waste, and that at least 10 million people including the visitors, officials, shop owners, youths and the general public, will join its effort this year.